Rating: 
Summary: An epic tale of heroism and despair
Review: George R. Stewarts" "Ordeal By Hunger" is the ultimate work based upon the ill-fated Donner Party expedition - one of the most horrifying events in American history. Originally published in the 1930s, Stewart's book has been the final word on this tale for multiple generations. Oddly enough, to date it is the most comprehensive study on this story, stocked with excellent detail and insight.It is almost impossible to imagine the suffering these 80-plus pioneers were forced to endure. After reading "Ordeal By Hunger," one will be much less likely to take their own lives for granted. And that is what the heart is of this story and Stewart's novel. The year is 1846, and the great pioneer migration west has begun. A group of families, inspired by a recent book by Lansford Hastings promoting a shortcut to California, decide to pack up their belongings and go west. They take the shortcut, though Hastings, who promised to lead them through, is nowhere to be found. They become lost, cutting a trail through the Wasatch Mountains, which to this day is a major highway in Salt Lake City. They cross the great Salt Lake desert, losing wagons and oxen, and eventually find themselves desolate in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with little food, inadequate shelter and trapped by the worst snowstorm in recorded history. Eventually people begin to die. In order to survive, many resort to cannibalism. After four relief efforts, about half of the party finally makes it to California. In all, over 40 perished. To this day, the Donner Party expedition is studied by sociologists and doctors alike. The group slowly fell into an "Every Man for Himself" dynamic, with the elderly and the infants perishing first. Then single men without families died. Ironically, most of the women and children survived, though explanations for this, touched upon in Stewart's work, have varied from the fat content in female bodies to the family dynamic remaining barely entact, thus aiding in survival. Multiple murders took place during this expedition, including the slaying of two Native American volunteers who were eventually consumed for nourishment. "Ordeal By Hunger" details such unimaginable horror, examining a group of tragically unfortunate people who were forced to rely on their most basic instincts. The reasons for such circumstance, touched upon in Stewart's novel, included bad luck, bad decision and poor leadership. Such tales of basic instinct/survival exist in the anals of world history, but there are very few - if any - that have actually taken place on American soil. The Donner Party expedition is the dark tale whispered to us by our parents. It is a story wrought with great heroism and heartbreaking tragedy. It is an epic of despair that serves as an example of how crucial the family dynamic is towards survival in any society. After reading "Ordeal By Hunger," one will ask themselves, "What would I have done in the same situation?" Today, "Ordeal By Hunger" is rather dated if only because there are no visuals. The maps are poorly detailed. An excellent companion book is Frank Mullen's recent "The Donner Party Chronicles," which includes photographs and color maps of the actual locations where these horrors and struggles took place. But for those yet unaware of this historical footnote, "Ordeal By Hunger" should be the first step towards understanding the dark side of the human experience. Thus, there is wisdom to be found in these pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking tale of sorrow, starvation, cannibalism.
Review: I read this book pretty rapidly because it was so unbelievable. The experience of the Donner Party is one that is impossible for most of us to imagine. If you are familiar with the book (or movie) Alive, by Piers Paul Read, then you will have some sense of what takes place. Many passages brought tears to my eyes. If you are not familiar with the story of the Donner Party, they were a group of 87 pioneers who set out for California from Illinois in the spring of 1846. They traveled via a passage (which was essentially untried at that time) that was being hawked by a man named Hastings. The trail led them through an ordeal that included near death from thirst, marauding Indians, at least one murder, and, finally, their entrapment in the Sierra Nevada through the worst-ever recorded winter in that region. Sadly, most of the party that survived did so by yielding to the necessity of cannibalism. About half of the original party got out alive. If you are as fascinated by true tales of extreme survival as I am, then this book will certainly prove gripping. One is reminded of the story of Shackleton's Endurance, or of the Uruguayan rugby team which suffered a plane crash in the Andes of South America. I recommend it without reservation to anyone who can stand it - but it is a most depressing saga.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking tale of sorrow, starvation, cannibalism.
Review: I read this book pretty rapidly because it was so unbelievable. The experience of the Donner Party is one that is impossible for most of us to imagine. If you are familiar with the book (or movie) Alive, by Piers Paul Read, then you will have some sense of what takes place. Many passages brought tears to my eyes. If you are not familiar with the story of the Donner Party, they were a group of 87 pioneers who set out for California from Illinois in the spring of 1846. They traveled via a passage (which was essentially untried at that time) that was being hawked by a man named Hastings. The trail led them through an ordeal that included near death from thirst, marauding Indians, at least one murder, and, finally, their entrapment in the Sierra Nevada through the worst-ever recorded winter in that region. Sadly, most of the party that survived did so by yielding to the necessity of cannibalism. About half of the original party got out alive. If you are as fascinated by true tales of extreme survival as I am, then this book will certainly prove gripping. One is reminded of the story of Shackleton's Endurance, or of the Uruguayan rugby team which suffered a plane crash in the Andes of South America. I recommend it without reservation to anyone who can stand it - but it is a most depressing saga.
Rating:
Summary: An American Epic
Review: Poignant, evocative, unsettling, Ordeal By Hunger is epic Americana. Written 80 years after the Donner tragedy and 70 years before our own time, it is an historical document that reveals much about developing American values and social mores over the past century and a half.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: The basics of this classic human story of survival used to be common knowledge to every Western schoolchild. Perhaps political correctness has taken the sting out of it by avoiding the difficult details, labeling them as being unsuitable for children. But in doing so, Westerners have reduced the Donner Party story to a spurious stain on American character--a ghastly blot to be rubbed out and forgotten, when it is in fact a triumphant lesson, an epic of Shakespearian porportions. And the man who best told the story of these 80-odd Americans, wrenching it away from the penny-dreadful press of the 19th Century, slicing away the innuendo and whispers, giving it poignancy and humanity, was George Rippey Stewart and his book, "Ordeal By Hunger". Seventy years later, it still triumphs as a classic of its kind. Stewart's style, which is searching and quiet, epitomizes the newspaperman's emphasis on fact. Yet there are passages in "Ordeal" that are so delicately humane, so generous and compassionate, that you will wish Mr. Stewart was still alive, so that you may thank him. Again and again, he emphasizes what should be obvious--that cannibalism was only a part of the ordeal, a symptom of that place in human experience where only Will stands between life and oblivion. That is a dark country, indeed--darker, even, than cannibalism. There have been a dozen or more major books on the Donner Party catastrophe since the mid-1800's. The first were obsessed with shocking detal. The more recent books have left a strange impression of sanitized, reductionalist "cheerfulness"--a sign, I fear, of our own time's obsession with relativist pragmatism. The man who saw the Party's members for what they were--a slice of the humanity of us all, acting out a Morality Play that is timeless--was George Stewart. "Ordeal By Hunger" should stand with the very best works of American letters.
Rating:
Summary: Tragic account of human endurance.
Review: The Donner Party's ill-fated trek to California is a fairly well known story. This book satisfactorily covers all the details. However, if anyone wants to get behind the lurid headlines of cannibalism & try to understand the nature of the folk that made the perilous crossings of the US in the 19th century, then this could be the right book for you. It's a faithful, well reseached & readable account of a group of people banded together for a journey that, whilst knowing it was going to be tough, actually expected that they might enjoy the experience. Not a fanciful notion considering that the vast majority of settlers of that time came through the passage with few major problems. The Donners, sadly, were different! Their ordeal was exceptional in it's harshness & suffering & there is an awful inexoribility about the events & circumstances that lead them to their ultimate terrible fate in an unforgiving wilderness. They were probably the typical mix of backgrounds & personalities one might expect from casual travellers united for mutual protection. They had their full share of heroes & villians, brave hearts & cowards, stalwarts & slackers, rich & poor. For each admirable behaviour example, like Reed, Stanton & Eddy, is a contrasting character like the sinister Keseburg or the nefarious Woodworth. The author is totally non-judgemental & deals with all of them with laudable objectivity. I found this an emotional read. Ultimately an uplifting experience. The way most of the chidren, especially the toddlers, respond & bear up to their hardships is extremely moving. Recommended! One point deducted (as mentioned by previous reviewers) for annoying, unreadable maps. Not sure why, but this is a common failing in so many books?
Rating:
Summary: An American Tragedy
Review: This account of the doomed Donner party reads like a thriller, especially if you use a map to follow its route. There is something of the Titanic in reading of their descent toward death. They could have survived one mistake, but they made many. They started late to cross the country. They moved slowly. Taking bad advice, they had to blaze a new route through the Wasatch Mountains. They came apart trying to cross the desert west of Great Salt Lake. Finally reaching the eastern slope of the Sierra Range, they rested too long and were trapped by deep snows at the crossing we now call Donner Pass. Their subsequent starvation and cannibalism gets most attention when you hear about the Donner party, but the real story is what happens when well-meaning people make mistakes, due to lack of knowledge. There is also tremendous heroism as families try to survive and rescuers from California try to reach the marooned people. Stewart tells a masterful story.
Rating:
Summary: This book is well worth reading.
Review: This book is well worth reading. It follows the Donner Party from their unfortunate choice of a bad route after they crossed the continental divide in Wyoming to their final "walk" over the Sierras. It concludes with several chapters discussing their ordeal, its causes and consequences, including some postscripts about the fate of each individual afterward. First, the story does not focus on the cannibalism, which members of the party independently resorted to on several occasions. As Stewart writes, "the cannibalism, although it might almost be called a minor episode, has become in the popular mind the chief fact to be remembered about the Donner Party. For a taboo always allures with as great strength as it repels." Instead, the story places the Donner Party in the setting of this country's westward migration, identifying its challenges and the diverse solutions the pioneers developed along the way. It includes several compelling human interest stories. It's hard to forget how one member, Reed, who was earlier ostracized from the party and went ahead, returned to meet his starving wife and two children, staved and barely walking down the west side of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada. Reed then goes ahead to try to save their other two children, who were in worse condition at Donner Lake. When the wife sees bare ground for the first time in months, she observes the leader of the "official" rescue party having his men rub his feet, because he thought he might have frostbite. The irony is obvious in the wife's sardonic comment: "we had better take care of him, reverse the order of things." It's also apparent that the leader's role in the rescue was important, even though he was content to send others ahead to brave the dangers while he ran things from camp. More irony is apparent when the second rescue party, composed mostly of mountain men and trappers, get the worst of it due to a late March storm in the Sierras. The perverse side of human nature comes out when one of the rescue party, rather than carrying out the one remaining baby, makes off with its weight in booty. Stewart also leaves in the ambiguities. Was the only survivor in the cabins in spring, really evil, enough to strangle a boy in his sleep before hanging him up the next morning like a piece of meat to be devoured? It's impossible to know. Yet the telling brings out another side of human nature --- in facing some evidence of this, the rescuers, the boy's father among them, were moved by pity and, although they thought of it, didn't simply kill him then and there.. Yes, this is a good store about human nature, what it takes to survive, and that motivation can be a stronger force than experience.
Rating:
Summary: AN AMERICAN SURVIVAL STORY...
Review: This book presents an account of the Donner Party, a wagon train of about eighty-seven people who in July 1846 started off for California via a new, untried route through the Sierras. Unfortunately, this particular wagon train of pioneers would go down in history due to the horror and tragedy that it was to meet along its way. Stranded in the Sierras amidst its harshest winter in years, with unparalleled snowfall and frigid temperatures, only little more than half, mostly women and children, were to survive their unbelievable deprivation and suffering.
This wagon train was a loose confederation of strangers who originally were part of another wagon train, but who collectively branched off by consensus to try a new, though untried and unproven, overland route through the Sierras that was alleged to be shorter. Their decision to take this new route was one that would haunt them for the rest of their journey, as it was not what it was purported to be. The inexperience of these travelers, the poor decisions that were sometimes made, and their seeming inability to truly unify as one entity contributed to their ultimate debacle. They were, after all, representative of humanity at large. Some of them were good, brave, and unselfish. Some were people with whom one would not wish to shake hands.
Beleaguered by thirst as they trekked across a desert, marauded by Indians along the way, plagued by the loss of necessary oxen and cattle, beset by accidents and personal squabbles that would sometimes turn deadly, they would finally reach the Sierras and begin their perilous crossing, only to find themselves snowbound at the summit while within sight of the pass that they needed to cross to be home free. Trapped by the weather in early November, they would set up a make-shift camp, never thinking about just how long their encampment would last. With minimal food supplies at their disposal, these intrepid, westward-ho emigrants would find themselves trapped for months, facing incredible hardships that would tax them beyond human endurance. Some would resort to cannibalism in order to survive.
This is a riveting story about survival of the fittest, about personal sacrifice, and human foibles. It is a story not only of those ill-fated pioneers but of those who would attempt to rescue them, often at great personal cost. It is a story that reflects the human spirit, both good and bad, in time of crisis. It is a story of often selfless heroism. It is also a story of greed and craven opportunism. While some of the book is politically incorrect, it is reflective of the times in which these pioneers lived, as well as that of when this book was first written.
It is, however, remiss that the maps included in this book do little to illustrate the deadly journey undertaken by these pioneers. Still, the lack of comprehensive maps does not unduly detract from the powerful impact that this story has on the reader. Moreover, although the book was published in 1936, the author, a trained historian, added a supplement in 1960, which is included in this edition of his book. This supplement serves to correct errors, as well as incorporate additional relevant material not available at the time of original publication.
Those who enjoy tales of survival will, undoubtedly, find this gripping tale well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Six Star Material
Review: Yes, the maps are next to useless. Yes, Stewart probably has some facts skewed. Yes, he had his biases. BUT, this book WILL leave you paralyzed with horror and wonder. The Donner Party saga may be one of the greatest "If Only..." stories of all time. For updated details of the story, see Kristin Johnson's superb web site. But for sheer electrifying narrative, this is the place to start!!! (Frankly, I can't even imagine giving this book less than four stars. One star??? Hello???)
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